Hey guy's I'm new to this forum and this is my first time posting as well as my first attempt at painting. Here's the run down of the picture I posted. The barbarian is based on one of the characters from the warlands comic book series. The layout is basicaly following the steps that's layed out in dhabih's tutorial. This picture is maybe half finished... You can see the part's that I painted and the part's that are still flat color that I haven't gotten around to yet. Any constructive thoughts about this piece would be welcome.

Also can anyone give any tips on how I may go about the metal axe and Armor?

I through in the light source just to show where the light will be coming from... I'll go back and make the light more dramatic when I fished the whole painting process... crt's welcome :-)

- Shawn C.

<IMG SRC="http://www.geocities.com/Alcamar/barbarian2.jpg">

[This message has been edited by shawncollette (edited January 02, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by shawncollette (edited January 02, 2001).]

A suggestion regarding the way he's holding the axe; Look at the tilt of the blade -- With the blade positioned thus, the upper part closest to his body, would be over-lapping his shoulder. Try doing the blade above his shoulder for some added depth.

As for a critique, I'd start by saying that you should study the anatomy of the barbarian's right arm (our left) a little better. Right now it looks like a jumble of buldges that aren't lining up right.

Also, Dhab's tutorial is getting updated soon and I'm pretty sure that he'll tell you this time around to stay away from dodge/burn. It can be a great tool when used correctly but for shading and highlights like the ones you're doing it's best to use the paintbrush with appropriate light and dark colors.

The pose is pretty cool and the light source you've indicated could make for an interesting image if you pull off the lighting and shadows correctly, something with really good contrast in the light and darks.

As for the metal, you'll probably be looking at a good deal of contrast going from near black to white. Depending on the reflectivity of the metal you'll want to study how the areas surrounding it will reflect their colors on the metal. If you go for a dull metal then stay with some low contrast greys for the majority of the piece and then use some fuzzy white highlights. The sharper the highlights and shadows, the more reflective the metal will appear and vice-versa. Hopefully you understood something in that...it's kinda hard to describe how to do metal, at least for me it is.

Hope this helps in any way and welcome to the forum! Finish this thing up and repost it.

-Flinthawk

[This message has been edited by Flinthawk (edited January 02, 2001).]

Nice!
Heh, those people understand more than me in digital art, but i can say that the way he is HOLDING the axe is not the natural way.
He's RIGHT hand is practically TOUCHING the metal, which isn't suppose to be that way.
Try to hold some long stick in this pose, and u'll see that the hand that is closer to the UPPER side of the "axe" is lower... closer to the middle...

This is the first thing that jumped in front of me...
Also, the right hand looks a bit too flat, like the LEFT hand (but the left hand is fine cause it's the back side of the hand)..
Therefore the hands look in first sight like they are both with their backs up...
So you should try to make the right hand's pose stick out more, and make it less flat.